R help - Aug 2011 - looping with paste

Dear list, 

I have a spacialPolygonDataFrame where variables were unnecessarily imported as
factors. So I am trying to unfactor variables from spatialPolygonDataFrame at
data with a loop

 
for (i in (1:length(names( spatialPolygonDataFrame)))){
	
	
command<-paste("spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(spatialPolygonDataFrame at
data[",i,"])<-as.character( spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(
spatialPolygonDataFrame at data[",i,"])")
command<-noquote(command)
command
	
}


But I keep getting just a printout

spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(spatialPolygonDataFrame at data[ 1
])<-as.character(spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(spatialPolygonDataFrame at
data[ 1 ])
spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(spatialPolygonDataFrame at data[ 2
])<-as.character(spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(spatialPolygonDataFrame at
data[ 2 ])
spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(spatialPolygonDataFrame at data[ 3
])<-as.character(spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(spatialPolygonDataFrame at
data[ 3 ])

and so on

Could somebody suggest why it's not working?
Thanks, 
Juta

Juta,

On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 4:29 PM, Juta Kawalerowicz
<juta.kawalerowicz at stx.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
> Dear list,
>
> I have a spacialPolygonDataFrame where variables were unnecessarily
imported as factors. So I am trying to unfactor variables from
spatialPolygonDataFrame at data with a loop
>
>
> for (i in (1:length(names( spatialPolygonDataFrame)))){
>
>
>
command<-paste("spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(spatialPolygonDataFrame at
data[",i,"])<-as.character( spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(
spatialPolygonDataFrame at data[",i,"])")
> command<-noquote(command)
> command
>
> }
>
>
> But I keep getting just a printout
Yeah, you're putting together a string, not actually running any commands.

Does this not work:

for (i in (1:length(names( spatialPolygonDataFrame)))){

spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(spatialPolygonDataFrame at data[i]) <-
as.character( spatialPolygonDataFrame$names(
spatialPolygonDataFrame at data[i]))

}

Subsetting on a variable should work just fine. I don't see any need for
paste().

Sarah
-- 
Sarah Goslee


http://www.functionaldiversity.org